


Finally

by LaGreyOwl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bad Mood, Cold, Crying, Fainting, Family Feels, Fever, Fluff, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Love Confessions, M/M, Medicine, Misunderstandings, Nausea, Pain, Short of breath, Sickfic, Sleepy Cuddles, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Space Mom Allura (Voltron), Vomiting, Worried Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:07:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29335014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaGreyOwl/pseuds/LaGreyOwl
Summary: Lance picks up a space cold, which is unfortunately worse than a normal human cold. Even though being ill is painful, Space dad Shiro, Space mom Allura and a (surprisingly) caring Keith are there to make him feel better.-Also featuring Paladin cuddles!
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Shiro (Voltron)
Kudos: 3





	Finally

" _Lance, to the left!"_ Keith hollered into Lance's helmet.

" _You're off shot!- Lance, you're hitting me!"_ Lance winced as Pidge lectured him. His head pounded and the noise wasn't helping. They were taking down a fleet of Galra and were winning. He was trying his best to help but he couldn't focus and was painfully off shot.

" _Are you okay man?"_ Asked Hunk, his face popping up on screen. " _You look pale."_

"I'm fine," he weakly responded. "Just tired." Hunk seemed to accept that and withdrew.

*****

Lance sat stiffly on the couch, clenching his jaw as Keith complained about his performance.

"-You're a paladin of Voltron!" Shiro cut him off, "Keith, give him a break. Let him explain what happened." Keith's face turned even more red. "No! He needs to take this seriously! What had you distracted anyway? You were daydreaming about your future girlfriend? Well heads up- you might not have a future if you can't even shoot straight!"

He growled. "Can't you just leave me alone? I don't want to hear your speech." He refrained from adding 'plus I like boys too" and got up, leaving.

Once he was in his room, he immediately flopped down on his bed. His throat hurt like hell but he was too tired to go get some water. As he stared at the smooth ceiling his eyes began to droop.... a loud alarm went off. He sprang up, grateful that he was still in his suit and grabbed his helmet, rushing to the navigation room where Allura would be.

"Paladins! Good, you're all here." He had to stifle a groan, realizing that it was just a drill. Shiro clapped his hands once. "I know we're all tired but we're going to do a few rounds in the training room. Okay?"  
His response was a chorus of grunts.

So five dobashes later, Lance found himself dodging hits and shooting in return. He was currently set at level eighteen having advanced much. Sweat poured of of him and shivers racked his body. Batches of drones came at him from all sides. He felt exhausted and his muscles ached with all the movements. Just when he thought he'd be overwhelmed, Keith's words echoed in his head. " _You're a Paladin. You need to take this seriously."_

Gritting his teeth he began to take out the drones, rolling to avoid getting shot. In a moment of adrenaline, he performed a series of menouvres, slipping through the drones' aims and with a flourish, swiftly blowing them up.

Calling out to end the session, he dropped to hands and knees, panting heavily. He stayed there unable to move until Shiro came and pulled him up.

Lance sagged in his arms tiredly and Shiro frowned. "Hey buddy, you okay?" Shiro stared into Lance's glassy eyes, noticing that he was pale. The others joined them. Shiro lowered Lance back onto the floor, supporting him.

"Allura, come take a look at Lance for me, will you? He's feeling very warm," he pressed his hand under Lance's chin.  
  


Lance jerked up, his eyes widening. "No! I'm perfectly fine! It was just a hard level." He backed towards the doorway flashing them a wide smile. Stumbling out the door, he shuffled to his room, just wanting to curl up on his bed.

***

He woke up feeling even worse. Trying to sit up, the world abruptly spun around him and black spots danced in his vision. Checking the time, he realized it was almost dinner. He pulled himself up and tiredly cleaned himself, blowing his stuffy nose and tried to make himself appear presentable.

He sighed before pulling on a smile and heading to the dining room. There he found his teammates. As soon as he entered, all eyes turned to him. Pidge furrowed her eyebrows. "You look..." She seemed to be trying to find the right word.

"Fabulous! I know."

He dropped down into his seat, leaning back, aware of the eyes on him.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" he asked jokingly.

They all abruptly shifted their gazes. "Right. I have the schedules for tomorrow prepared, you can pull them up on your wristbands. The major chores for tomorrow are cleaning your lions, checking your armor and because we all need a break, we'll have some bonding time. The others aren't mandatory but I suggest you get them done," Shiro said.

Lance spooned some food goo into his mouth, only to choke as he couldn't breathe through his nose. Hunk who sat next to him quickly leaned over and began patting him on the back. He grabbed a tissue and spat the food out, lightly gagging.

"Lance-" Shiro began but Lance cut him off. "I'm fine. I'll just go to bed now."

"No," Shiro demanded, standing. "Lance, look at yourself! You're sick. Why don't you just admit it! The sooner you get better, the sooner we can form Voltron with you not stumbling around! By pushing yourself like this you're jeopardizing the team."

Tears began to build at the corners of his eyes as his insecurities that he tried so hard to hide began to overwhelm him. Hunk leaned over and embraced him in a bear hug. "Alright, that's enough. He never said when he was sick in the Garrison so we can't expect him to change his tendencies." He whispered the next part but Lance could still hear him. "Also, he get's sensitive when he's not feeling well. We'll talk more about it later."

Lance pulled away, standing and crossing his arms stubbornly. "I-" He stumbled backwards onto his chair as a wave of dizziness shot through him with unexpected force. 

Ignoring the worried calls, he stood back up and took a deep breath. 

"I'm completely fine. Okay? I'm just tired." Which was completely true. 

Hunk seemed to realize this too, identifying the bags under his eyes. 

"Lance, have you been having nightmares again? Or is it your insomnia?"

Everyone stared at Lance, surprised. Lance always gave the impression that he slept perfectly, what with his alive appearance. 

Lance gave Hunk a betrayed look. "You weren't supposed to say anything about it," he muttered in a strangled voice. 

_I can't trust anyone, not even Hunk. I need to hide it better. At least no one ever noticed my scars. But I'm so horrible that I can't even hide the fact that I don't sleep._

"Lance!" Keith's voice snapped him out of his trance. His vision was overly blurred and with horror he realized that tears were sliding down his cheeks like a waterfall.

He quickly turned his back on them and wiped his eyes. 

Hastily, he sidestepped his chair and left the room. When he arrived at his room, he slid down the door letting sobs escape his lips. 

_Useless. Ugly. Stupid. A mistake. I couldn't even pass to be a fighter pilot. Not without Keith dropping out._ He only wept harder when he remembered the endless studying he did. Nights filled with silence, determination and coffee. There was even a time when he hadn't slept or eaten properly in about a week, causing him to collapse. He could never do anything right. Was so dumb. Maybe if he had just tried harder....

*****

Lance opened his eyes, blinking when light filled his vision. He found himself slumped against the floor, in front of his door. He must've fallen asleep.

As he sat up, he had to fight the urge to flop back down. His body ached and he felt like crying. He breathed shallowly through his mouth, his nose blocked up. As he attempted to move, only to shift onto a colder part of the floor, he practically gave up. He pressed his forehead against the cool metal. He closed his eyes.

"Oh Quiznak...." 

He woke with a start, hearing Pidge's voice. "Wh-" he tried before beginning to cough wetly. He heard the patter of footsteps before frantic voices joined the mix and he felt himself being picked up. Barely cracking open his eyes, he recognized the face of Keith. Panic welled in him. His freaking _crush was seeing him in this mess and he couldn't do anything about it!_

Mustering all his strength, he tried to wiggle out of Keith's grip without success. Why did the guy have to be so damn strong?

Not that Lance minded. Keith with his noticeable arm muscles and sexy abs- _snap out of it!_

Soon enough, Keith's arms loosened around him and he slipped onto a soft surface. He groaned at the pleasing feeling after spending the night on an uncomfortable floor.

He tried hard to stay awake, but after concluding that it was painful to force himself to stay awake, he allowed himself to drift in and out of sleep. They had already realized he wasn't okay in any case.

*****

Keith stared at Coran. "A space flue. Well, what are the symptoms?"

"Common symptoms are, what you humans call fever, dizziness, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, cough, congestion, body aches or headaches and general unhappiness. You could also have wheezing, shortness of breath, ear pain, unusual drowsiness and lack of appetite," Coran listed.

Keith breathed out slowly, trying to calm himself after seeing Lance laying on the floor. "Okay. What can we do about it?"

"Well, the best we can do is monitor him, let him rest, give him many liquids and wait until we can go to the space mall to get supplies that will help him. Poor boy. He won't be able to train for a while after. No human that I'm aware of has ever gotten this flu. It might weaken him severely."

Keith nodded slightly, before exiting through the same door Pidge had. He needed to inform Shiro and the others of what happened.

He stumbled as he knocked into a hard chest. "Woah, steady there. We can't have you getting hurt too." He looked up registering Shiro's stressed face. Seems that Pidge already told them.

He sighed through his teeth. "What are we supposed to do? We can't form Voltron when he's in this condition!"

Shiro shrugged slightly. "Then we hide."


End file.
